26.3.10

Fridge Easter Egg Magnets:Craft FoamMagnetsGlitter Glue & PaintCut egg shapes from the craft foam in various colours. Let child paint. Once dry, decorate with glitter glue. Once dry, attach magnet to back. Pretty simple! Good craft to save as decorations for future years. Remember to write the year on the back!

Rice Easter Egg Pictures:Coloured Rice*GlueConstruction paper or Poster Board or Cardboard(or recyle a Cereal Box!)*Coloured Rice* Put rice into small bowls. Add a few drops of food colouring. Stir well. Allow to dry for a day or two stirring once in awhile. Store in ziploc bags.Draw a large egg shape on the Paper. Draw lines across egg. Let child paint the glue onto one stripe. Pour the coloured rice onto the glue. Pour off extra rice. Now proceed to next stripe and continue until egg is all colourful with rice stripes! Allow to dry well before hanging.

Easter Pages:

Colouring Book PagesDifferent Mediums like markers, bingo dabbers, paint, glitter, crayons, etc.Each day for a week or so preceeding Easter, let child decorate a picture with a different medium. One day doing paints, another using crayons, etc. Hang around the house to decorate for Easter.

Cut the bottom off a cylindrical cardboard box.Let child glue on red and white construction paper to look like the background of the Canadian flag. Cut out a small red maple leaf and glue it on the white central part of the windsock.Cut some red and white crepe paper streamers and glue or staple them to one end of the wind sock.Punch four holes along the top of the wind sock.Cut two pieces of string about a foot long. Tie the strings to the wind sock (tie the opposite ends of a string to holes on opposite sides of the cylinder).Tie a longer piece of string to the smaller pieces - you'll hang the wind sock from this piece of string.Hang it up!

21.3.10

Great theme for any child - boy or girl - and any age! Can be an indoor theme on a cold winters day or an outside party in spring, summer, or fall! Very versatile!

InvitationsMake fun flower garden / bug themed birthday invitations for your party. Your child could make several 8x10 abstract paintings - then cut into a butterfly shape. Write party details on the back. One 8x10 painting could be for two invitations.

Write party details on a recipe card and attach some themed stickers. Hole punch a corner of the recipe card and tie to a plastic flower.

DecorationsCover the top of the tables with sunny yellow tablecloths (or other vibrant colours)

Add large artificial flowers all over the room

Blow up helium balloons and tie them with long strings of curling ribbon. Attach butterflies, dragonflies or any flying bug to the end of the curling ribbon. Let the balloons float to the ceiling and the butterflies and bugs will “fly” around the party area.

Coffee Filter bugs - let child decorate a coffee filter with bingo dabbers or markers. Scrunch in the middle and clip with clothesline pin. Glue or draw two eyes on clothesline pin. Create several and hang from ceiling or curtain rod.

LADYBUGs: All decorations would be red with black dots.

Activities

Nature Scavenger Hunt. This can be done at a park, lake, pond or backyard. Each guest receives a nature scavenger hunt list and collection items. They then are sent off in pairs or groups to look for the items on their list. Have a prize for the winning team who finds the most items. Give each hunter a gallon size plastic baggie, bucket and spoon (the bucket & shovel might be their loot bag too!) to collect their items.Scavenger item ideas: pinecones, leaves, white rock, feather, birch bark, etc. You could also hide a few plastic bugs that they are to find.

Pin the bug on the flower. Played just like pin the tail on the donkey only use a large poster of a flower and bug stickers. Buy or draw a flower on a poster board. Make sure the flower has a stem and leaves and doesn't take up more then 10% of the poster. Mark a spot on the flower with a sticker or marker in case more then one player gets their bug on the flower - the player closest to this mark wins. Attach the poster to a wall. Give each party guest a bug sticker with a number written on it. If you can't find stickers then you can make ladybugs and beetles out of construction paper.

Bug Landing (variation of musical chairs). Cut large leaves out of poster board or felt - at least large enough for two children to stand on. Make one leaf per guest. Place the leaves around the floor of the area you will be playing in. Tell birthday guests that they are going to pretend to be bugs. When the music plays they will pretend to fly around the room, but when the music stops they must find a leaf to land on.

If you are giving away prizes: Before the party buy small prizes - enough for each guest - with a bug / flower theme.

Digging for Bugs: Fill a large bucket or shallow rubbermaid container halfway with soil. Add enough water to make it goopy and muddy. Mix in different rubber and plastic bugs & reptiles. Each child gets to dig out an item until all the items have been found. (Have a bucket of soapy water handy!)

Paint picture frames green and then paint on bugs or flowers. An easy way to make bugs is to have them dip their index finger in paint and make dots on the frame. Then come back when dry with a small paint brush and paint on dots, eyes and antenna’s. You can also let them decorate the frames with stickers, jewels or foam cut-outs.

Decorate clay pots with paint. Then fill with dirt and add few flower seeds. This makes a great party favor for the guests to take home.

Decoupaged clay pots. Using slightly diluted white glue, let the children paint the glue on the pot and put on small pre-cut squares of fabric scraps. Paint a layer of glue over finished product. Tissue paper also makes a great decoupage medium.

Bug Pet Rocks - Find or buy several very smooth round flat rocks. Let the party guests paint their rocks to look like bugs. Glue on googly eyes if desired. Then let the guests name their pet rocks and take them home for a party favor.

Make dirt / garden cupcakes. Fill individual cupcake liners 1/2 way with chocolate pudding. Crush Oreo cookies and sprinkle them on top of the chocolate pudding to fill the liners. Place gummy worms in the cupcakes and a pretty plastic flower on top. This a also a fun activity for the party goers to make!

Chocolate Pudding cups with a gummy worm or spider

Birthday cake shaped like a caterpillar, butterfly, or a dirt cake (google it for recipe but I think basically a frosted chocolate cake that is then sprinkled with oreo crumbs and gummy bugs)

Party FavorsBug NetsMagnifying glassPlastic bugsStickers of flowers and bugsSmall terra cotta pot with a packet of seedsSmall toy rake or hoeAny item that the birthday party guests have made as a craft

**For instance, the kids painted or decoupaged a clay pot. When it's time to leave, place a baggie of soil, flower seed packet, a baggie of gummy worms, and a thank you note inside the pot. A complete loot bag that will be used rather than tossed because it's all plastic junk! **